This workshop aimed to introduce the mechanisms for the implementation of the intangible cultural heritage Convention and strengthen national capacities to implement and safeguard intangible cultural heritage.

It brought together representatives of public institutions and civil society directly related to the inventory, management and promotion of intangible cultural heritage of their country to give them the tools necessary to safeguard the intangible heritage present in their territory. A particular focus was put on inventory-making as well as on the criteria and procedures for the inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

The Secretariat of the Convention organized, Monday 25 October 2010, an information meeting for the members of the Intergovernmental Committee. This meeting took place on Room II (Fontenoy) from 3 to 6 p.m..

The purpose of this meeting was to inform Committee members about the functioning of the Committee and its general working methods. At its last session, the General Assembly adopted revised operational directives for the implementation of the Convention. The Secretariat wished to inform all members of the Committee, before its fifth session, on the changes resulting from these revisions, in particular regarding the submission of nominations for the lists of the Convention and requests for international assistance under the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. Moreover, the Secretariat presented the provisional agenda of the fifth session of the Committee and the Chairperson informed the participants of the action taken by the Kenyan Government regarding its hosting of the Committee’s next session in Nairobi, Kenya (15-19 November 2010). This information meeting was also open to interested States Parties, which are not members of the Committee and States not party to the Convention.

This workshop aims at gaining the support of communities, groups and individuals custodians of intangible cultural heritage to the principles of the 2003 Convention by providing the necessary tools for its understanding and ‘ownership’.

The specific objectives of the meeting are:

to provide an overview of the 2003 Convention: its objectives, key concepts, and commitments to respect national and international cooperation mechanisms;

to lay the groundwork necessary for a thorough understanding of key concepts of intangible cultural heritage and the arsenal of preventive measures listed by the Convention;

to share past and ongoing experiences of safeguarding intangible heritage;

to propose practical guidance for developing backup plans;

to assist in the establishment of a Gabonese National Committee for Cultural Heritage.

NGOs have an important role to play in the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. At the national level, they can operate between communities and governments and should be involved in identifying and defining intangible cultural heritage and in other appropriate safeguarding measures. At the international level, NGOs can have advisory functions, once they are accredited by the Committee, in particular to make recommendations to the Committee on nomination files for the Urgent Safeguarding List and proposals of best safeguarding practices.

Organized by the Estonian Folk Culture Development and Training Centre and the Estonian National Commission for UNESCO in close cooperation with UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section, this capacity-building workshop provided up-to-date information on the Convention to NGOs and governmental counterparts in order to strengthen their capacities to contribute to its implementation and to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.

The participating countries were Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Serbia, in addition to trainers and UNESCO representatives. It has been financially supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture and UNESCO.

Following Argentina’s ratification of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the intangible Cultural Heritage in June 2006, the Department of Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and the UNESCO Office in Montevideo jointly convened this workshop on the implementation of the Convention.

The objectives of the workshop were to provide participants with essential information relating to the Convention and to discuss a national strategy for its effective implementation, with particular attention to the:

enhancement of the existing national mechanism for safeguarding intangible heritage at the provincial and local levels;

preparation of one or more inventories of intangible cultural heritage on Argentina’s territory; and

criteria and procedures for nominations to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The workshop was specifically organized for Argentina officials responsible for cultural matters within the 23 provincial governments and at national level and some officials of Paraguay and Uruguay. Senior experts from Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Latin America (CRESPIAL) will bring their technical expertise through concrete examples of management of intangible heritage and will lead the interactive sessions with participants.

On 20 and 21 July, a regional consultation meeting, ‘Intangible Heritage Beyond Borders: Safeguarding through International Cooperation’, was held in Bangkok. The meeting gathered more than 30 government representatives from across the Asia-Pacific region aiming to strengthen international cooperation for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and preventing conflicts that might otherwise arise over the ownership, exploitation or misinterpretation of intangible heritage. The focus on intangible cultural heritage is exceptionally pertinent: contrary to monuments, intangible heritage is embedded only in humans and their locations often change without heed of national borders.

The meeting allowed for officials to discuss the issue of international cooperation, and address debates which were stimulated by presentations given by experts from Africa, Latin America, and Asia focussing the issue of intangible shared heritage, shared across borders.

By its decision 4.COM 19 (English|French), adopted at its fourth meeting in Abu Dhabi in November 2009, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage had created an intergovernmental working group open to the participation by all States Parties, to consider, on the basis of the experience of the first cycle of implementation of the Convention, improvements that could be made to the Operational Directives for the implementation of the Convention.

Following its two meetings during the fourth session of the Committee, this group met again on 21 May 2010. To prepare the debates of the working group, the Secretariat organized an expert meeting on 15 March 2010 (distributed documents, the report and accounts of their proceedings are available online).

At its meeting on 21 May (distributed documents are available online) the working group has identified a number of possible improvements in the working methods of the Committee, the Subsidiary Body and the Secretariat.

To progress with its discussions, the working group established a restricted working group composed of Belgium, Italy, Estonia, Colombia, Saint Lucia, China, Japan, the India, Kenya and Morocco. This restricted group met on Tuesday, 1 June 2010 and agreed on a consensus text of proposed amendments to the Operational Directives as proposed in the document ITH/10/5.COM 4.WG/1 (English|French).

This consensus document from the restricted working group will be submitted to the working group at its meeting on Monday, 21 June 2010, in Room II (Fontenoy), 10 am to 6 pm. The results of this meeting, again open to all States Parties, will be submitted to a working group that the Committee proposed to the General Assembly to establish in order to report to the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention at its third session of 22 to 24 June 2010.

At the end of the meeting of the Working Group of the Intergovernmental Committee on amendments to the Operational Directives, which met on 21 May 2010, a restricted working group has been established to continue the work started on 21 May. This restricted working group, composed of Belgium, Italy, Estonia, Colombia, Saint Lucia, China, Japan, India, Kenya and Morocco, will be held on Tuesday, 1 June 2010, Room XIII (Bonvin) from10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This meeting is open to all States Parties to the Convention.

Registration form

Documents

Excerpts of the draft summary records of the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (28 September to 2 October 2009, Abu Dhabi)ITH/10/5.COM 3.WG/2: English|French

Report and summary records of the expert meeting of 15 March 2010 ITH/10/5.COM 3.WG/3: English|French

Proposal of amendments to the Operational Directives for the implementation of the ConventionITH/10/5.COM 3.WG/4: English|French

Meeting of the working group of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (5.COM 3.WG)21-05-2010,Paris (France)

The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, meeting in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) during its 4th session from 28 September to 2 October 2009, found that an in-depth reflection on the Operational Directives was necessary in light of the first cycle of their implementation. The Committee noted an imbalance between the three Lists of the Convention – with a pronounced interest in favour of the Representative List, and very little interest in the Urgent Safeguarding List or the Register for Good Practices (Article 18). The Subsidiary Body, responsible for examining the nominations to the Representative List, underlined that its workload was very heavy and proposed amendments to the Operational Directives so as to have a more manageable workload in the future.

The Committee considered it that it was important and urgent to find appropriate solutions so that the General Assembly, at its meeting in June 2010, be seized. To this end an intergovernmental working group, open to all States Parties, was created to reflect upon improvements that could be brought about, based on the experience of the first cycle of implementation.

Following its two meetings in Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of the Committee’s work, two other meetings of the intergovernmental working group are foreseen on 21 May (Room XI, 10h-13h / 15h-18h) and 21 June 2010 respectively.

Registration form

Documents

Excerpts of the draft summary records of the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (28 September to 2 October 2009, Abu Dhabi)ITH/10/5.COM 3.WG/2: English|French

Report and summary records of the expert meeting of 15 March 2010 ITH/10/5.COM 3.WG/3: English|French

Proposal of amendments to the Operational Directives for the implementation of the ConventionITH/10/5.COM 3.WG/4: English|French

Legal opinion on certain measures regarding the examination of nominations to the Representative List of Article 16 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: English|French

This meeting aims to initiate an in-depth reflection on the working mechanisms of the 2003 Convention, following the first cycle of its implementation.

The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, meeting in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) during its 4th session from 28 September to 2 October 2009, noted an imbalance between the three Lists of the Convention – with a pronounced interest in favour of the Representative List, and very little interest in the Urgent Safeguarding List or the Register for Good Practices (Article 18), mechanisms nevertheless central to the Convention. The Subsidiary Body, responsible for examining the nominations to the Representative List, underlined that its workload was very heavy and proposed amendments to the Operational Directives so as to have a more manageable workload in the future.

The Committee considered it important and urgent to find appropriate solutions so that the General Assembly at its meeting in June 2010 could approve them. To this end an intergovernmental working group, open to all States Parties, was created to reflect upon improvements that could be brought about, based on the experience of the first cycle of implementation, and to present a report of its conclusions to the Assembly.

Following its first meeting in Abu Dhabi, two other meetings of the intergovernmental working group are foreseen on 21 May and 21 June 2010 respectively. The expert meeting on 15 March is convened to prepare the debates for this intergovernmental working group.

Legal opinion on certain measures regarding the examination of nominations to the Representative List of Article 16 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural HeritageITH/10/EM1/5 Rev.: English|French

Excerpts of discussions and documents leading to the elaboration of the 2003 Convention and its Operational Directives concerning the nature of the intangible cultural heritage listsITH/10/EM1/6 Rev.: English|French

Discussions during the governance meetings of the World Heritage Convention concerning the management of nominations to the World Heritage ListITH/10/EM1/7 Rev.: English|French

The meeting was aimed at providing a forum for representatives of the Council of Traditional Leaders, civil society, NGOs, governmental officers, and others to discuss strategies and action plans for safeguarding Palau’s intangible cultural heritage as well as promoting a better understanding of UNESCO’s programmes, in particular the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The meeting covered various topics, ranging from a national legal framework for cultural resource management to educational and training activities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. The workshop resulted in consolidating, with the support of traditional leaders, the national platform for the safeguarding of cultural heritage and produced a better understanding of the 2003 Convention as a tool for assisting Palau in its safeguarding efforts. In April, a follow-up meeting will be organized so that Palau continues moving toward the ratification of the Convention.

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage aims at safeguarding living heritage. Unlike tangible heritage that is conventionally managed by heritage experts (e.g., architects, archaeologists, and conservators), intangible cultural heritage requires a participatory approach to safeguarding involving various stakeholders, most important of whom are the communities concerned. Among the obligations of States Parties to the Convention, the one that is expressed in the strongest language is the duty to elaborate one or more inventories of the intangible heritage present on their territories with the participation of the communities concerned. An effective strategy to ensure the active participation of communities in the implementation of the Convention is to have them inventory their own heritage.

The Lesotho workshop is one of the activities of the capacity-building project aiming at strengthening community-based inventorying capacity. This initial training workshop in Lesotho will be followed by similar ones in Botswana, Malawi, Uganda, Swaziland, and Zambia. The workshop participants will then engage themselves in several months of fieldwork in each country separately. Follow-up sessions will be organized to evaluate the quality of exercises and improve methodologies.

The project is backed up by UNESCO Secretariat in Paris as well as the Culture programme staff in the cluster offices in Harare, Nairobi and Windhoek.

The workshop and the project are sponsored by the UNESCO/Flanders Trust Fund and organized in cooperation with the Lesotho UNESCO National Commission and the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture of Lesotho

The objective of the inter-departmental meeting is to bring together all Vanuatu governmental actors involved in the ratification procedure of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The meeting is aimed at providing governmental officers in different departments with information and assistance that might contribute to the ratification and implementation of the 2003 Convention. Legislation, programmes and activities related to the safeguarding of Vanuatu’s intangible heritage, including Vanuatu Sand Drawings on the Representative List, were shared among the participants.

During the third session of the Intergovernmental Committee (Istanbul, November 2008), an announcement was made of an expert meeting to be organized to discuss the role of culinary practices in implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The idea to organize a seminar on this issue was launched by the Delegation of Peru and supported by other delegations, including that of France, which proposed to hold the meeting.

The French Ministère de la culture et de la communication (Direction de l’architecture, Mission ethnologie) is organizing this seminar on 4 and 5 April, with the participation of UNESCO. The venue of the meeting will be the Documentation Center of the Maison des Cultures du Monde in Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine).

The working language of the meeting will be French. The meeting is open to experts, with prior registration to Mr Christian Hottin (christian.hottin@culture.gouv.fr). Considering the small size of the meeting room, the number of participants is limited to 35. Observers may register on the basis of available space.

Meeting of the subsidiary body for the examination of nominations for the Representative List12/13-01-2009,Paris (France)

This body, established by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at its third session in November 2008, composed by Turkey, Estonia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, is responsible for the examination of nominations for inscription on the Representative List in 2009 and 2010.It will meet in private session.

Tongan inter-departmental meeting on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage05-12-2008,Fua’amotu (Tonga)

As a follow-up to the sub-regional meeting in the Pacific on the 2003 Convention (Nadi, Fiji, December 2007), UNESCO is organizing a series of national consultation meetings to assist Pacific Member States in the ratification and implementation of the 2003 Convention. The Tongan inter-departmental meeting is the third national consultation meeting organized in 2008, following those of Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby, 18-19 March 2008) and Fiji (Suva, 21-22 May 2008).

The meeting is aimed at providing governmental officers in different departments with information and assistance that might contribute to the ratification and implementation of the 2003 Convention. Legislation, programmes and activities related to the safeguarding of Tonga’s intangible heritage will be shared among the participants.

The meeting will be organized immediately after the Second Pacific meeting on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is also held in Tonga from 2 to 4 December 2008, and will be attended by representatives from most of the Pacific States.

The meeting was aimed at reinforcing capacities among governmental decision-makers in the Pacific for developing measures and policies for the safeguarding of their intangible cultural heritage. Governmental representatives from all Pacific States have been invited to attend.

As a way to give a follow-up to the first Pacific meeting on the Convention(Nadi, Fiji, December 2007 ), the participants were informed about the latest developments on the Convention, which is fully operational since June 2008. Moreover, they were be informed about the procedures followed by Papua New Guinea to ratify the Convention as well as of other activities in the field of intangible heritage carried out by UNESCO in the Pacific in 2008.

The 1.5-day National Capacity-Building Workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention was held in Maputo, Mozambique. The workshop was a follow-up to the workshop on ICH inventorying held in July 2007 in Maputo for Lusophone African states.

Fifteen national researchers and cultural officers from various provinces of Mozambique participated. Drawing upon the ICH inventory template that they themselves developed during the 2007 workshop, they worked on filling in the template using some examples of ICH from provinces.

At the end of the workshop, the participants decided to review once again the template and communicate to each other any necessary modification. Once the template is revised in the coming weeks, they are to start inventorying ICH in their respective provinces. They are to organize a debriefing workshop to exchange their experiences and further improve ICH inventorying methodologies.

This workshop, the last of a series of three targeting African states, aimed at informing all African States Parties to the 2003 Convention about recent developments concerning operational aspects of the Convention (c.f. paragraph 04007 of UNESCO 34C/5), more in particular the preparation of nomination files for the Lists of the Convention and of requests for international assistance.

The workshop took place immediately following the second session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention (16 -19 June 2008), which approved the Operational Directives (e.g., selection criteria, calendar of ICH listings)—that the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has prepared over the last 16 months.

The workshop was financed both by the UNESCO regular programme and the Government of Norway within the framework of the UNESCO/Norway Funds-in-Trust.

An information meeting for the States Parties to the Convention will be held on Monday 2 June 2008 from 15.30 to 18.00 in Room XI (Fontenoy) in preparation for the second session of the General Assembly.

The purpose of this meeting opened by the Director-General is to present the principal activities and decisions of the four sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage organized since the first session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention in June 2006. Member States of UNESCO not party to the Convention and Observer delegations are cordially invited to attend to this information meeting as observers.

The objective of the inter-departmental meeting is to bring together all Fijian governmental actors involved in the ratification procedure of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. As a follow-up to the sub-regional meeting in the Pacific on the 2003 Convention (Nadi, Fiji, December 2007), UNESCO is organizing a series of national consultation meetings to assist Pacific Member States in the ratification and implementation of the 2003 Convention. The inter-departmental meeting held in Fiji is the second national consultation meeting, following the one held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on 18 and 19 March 2008.

The meeting is aimed at providing governmental officers in different departments with information and assistance that might contribute to the ratification of the 2003 Convention, and support Fiji’s participation at the international level in the implementation of the Convention, in particular through the submission of intangible heritage elements for inscription on the lists of the Convention and the submission of international assistance requests.

A sub-regional workshop on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) - www.unesco.org/culture/ich - took place in Bamako (Mali) from 19 to 20 May 2008. It followed the sub-regional meetings organized by UNESCO in November and December 2006 in Douala (Cameroon) and Dakar (Senegal).

Considering the growing interest for the Convention, the rapid development of its implementation and the fact that many States Parties to the Convention have already started preparing nomination files for inscription on the Lists of Intangible Heritage, it was considered timely to organize a workshop whose objective is to promote the Convention among African Non-States Parties, or in which the ratification process is underway, and to put emphasis on the various aspects of the implementation of this normative instrument.

Among others, the following themes were debated:

the objectives of the 2003 Convention

the rights and obligations of States Parties to the Convention

the mechanisms of the Convention

inventorying intangible cultural heritage

the safeguarding measures of the intangible cultural heritage

the inscription of elements of the intangible cultural heritage on the Lists

Following Indonesia’s ratification of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in October 2007, the UNESCO Office in Jakarta, the Department of Culture and Tourism and the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO are jointly convening a two-day capacity building workshop for the implementation of the Convention for the safeguarding of the Intangible cultural heritage, with technical support from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO Headquarters.

The participants of the national workshop will consist of: cultural officials, researchers, universities, community representatives and practitioners.

The objectives of the workshop are to strengthen the national capacities for implementing the 2003 Convention and to provide stakeholders with the information relating to the implementation of the 2003 Convention, with particular attention to the:

intangible cultural heritage resources mapping on Indonesia’s territory with the participation of communities, for promoting and safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage in Indonesia, and

The workshop was a follow-up to the sub-regional meeting that the Section of Intangible Cultural Heritage organized on the implementation of the 2003 Convention and ICH inventorying in November 2006 in Dar es Salaam. It is the first of a series of three to be organized for African states.

How can countries—and especially the communities among whom intangible heritage is found—best safeguard heritage that is living, not fixed in buildings or monuments? One effective tool to support international cooperation in such safeguarding efforts, and to strengthen national capacities, is the Intangible Heritage Convention. Adopted by UNESCO in 2003 and entered into force in 2006, this legal instrument had ninety States Parties at the moment of the meeting.

The workshop focused on introducing the Convention to cultural officials of southern African nations, explaining the ratification process, and considering with them how they might implement the Convention to best achieve its goals.

The workshop was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of Norway within the framework of the UNESCO/Norway Funds-in-Trust.

The objective of the inter-departmental meeting was to bring together all the governmental actors involved in the ratification procedure by Papua New Guinea of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

During the sub-regional meeting in the Pacific on the 2003 Convention, organized in Nadi, Fiji in December 2007, several participating States, including Papua New Guinea, requested assistance from UNESCO in preparing the ratification and implementation of the 2003 Convention in the Pacific. The Director General of UNESCO, during his official visit to Papua New Guinea in February 2008, affirmed UNESCO’s readiness to fully assist the Government through the organization of a national consultation meeting.

Through the meeting organized with the support of Japanese Funds in Trust, UNESCO provided the Government with assistance necessary to present a proposal for the ratification of the 2003 Convention at the National Parliament. The meeting also aimed at reinforcing capacity of governmental officers in the field of culture as well as stakeholders concerned in participating at the international level in the implementation of the Convention, in particular through the submission of intangible heritage elements for inscription on the lists of the Convention and the submission of international assistance requests.

PresentationsInternational Treaty Making Procedures in Papua New Guinea, by Mr Fred Sarufa (English)State of legislation for the safeguarding of Papua New Guinea Intangible Cultural Heritage, by Mr Hale Lahui (English)

Following Kenya’s ratification of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in October 2007, the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services and the UNESCO Office in Nairobi are jointly convening a two-day meeting on the implementation of the Convention.
Some sixty participants, representing ministries, provincial administrations, universities, non-governmental organizations and individuals working in the field of culture will attend the meeting.

The objectives of the workshop are to provide stakeholders with the information relating to the 2003 Convention and to discuss a national strategy for its implementation, with particular attention to the:

preparation of an inventory or inventories of intangible cultural heritage on Kenya’s territory;

preparation of nomination files to the Representative List and to the List of Intangible Heritage in Urgent Need of Safeguarding, and;

enhancement of the existing national mechanism, including the participation of communities, for promoting and safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage in Kenya.

The meeting was organized by UNESCO, in cooperation with the Fijian authorities and with the financial support of Japan, to provide updated information on the activities carried out at the international level for safeguarding intangible heritage and on the possible benefits of ratifying the 2003 Convention for Pacific States. Some 30 participants from 19 pacific States and territories, as well as from three pacific organizations, exchanged their views and experiences in safeguarding their countries’ living heritage. The meeting was opened by Fiji’s honorable Minister for Education and Culture, Mr Netani Sukanaivalu.

The meeting contributed to sharing concerns and experiences concerning inventorying intangible cultural heritage, indigenous rights and intellectual property rights, as well as clarifying misunderstandings about the relation of the 2003 Convention to other normative instruments. The meeting also served as a first step to develop a medium term strategy for the safeguarding of the Pacific’s intangible heritage within the framework of the implementation of the Convention. It would include the organization of national consultative meetings aimed at providing necessary assistance for stakeholders who will be involved in the ratification and implementation of the Convention in each country.

The meeting was closed by the Honorable Minister of Culture of Palau, Mr Alexander Merep, who underscored the important role that the Convention will have in contributing to intercultural dialogue and sustainable development.

Structured around case studies from the region, the meeting aimed to provide a platform for experts and practitioners to discuss how best to strengthen communities’ capacities to control and manage their own Intangible Cultural Heritage in the face of increased tourism. The key themes under which the case studies were organized include:

Handicrafts in the context of sustainable cultural tourism

Performing arts in the context of sustainable cultural tourism

ICH in the context of environmental, agricultural and eco tourism

The meeting has been organized by the Hue Monuments Conservation Center (HMCC), the Department of National Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Viet Nam, the Korean Establishment Initiative for the Intangible Heritage Centre for Asia-Pacific (EIIHCAP) and the Office of the UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific.

This meeting, consisting of a restricted working group (8 experts), aims to work out or update definitions for about thirty concepts that are frequently used in the context of the safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The resulting definitions will be included in the form of “boxes” or explanatory notes within the general manual under preparation, and in the thematic manuals that will follow. It appears useful today to supplement and re-examine the definitions worked out by an international meeting of experts in 2002.

This Expert Meeting is held to support the preparation of the third edition of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. The meeting is organized and hosted by UNESCO within the framework of its activities under the Endangered Languages Programme and the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Experts are invited to discuss current trends and innovations in linguistic cartography. This will include discussions of recent experiences and projects in language mapping in various parts of the world, particularly any such projects as have focused on endangered languages but also including others focused on language distribution, dialectology, diachronic mapping, genetic relations or other subjects.

Prof. Ronald E. Asher, Professor of linguistics & English Language (The University of Edinburgh, UK)

Ms Kay Dancey, Manager Cartographic Services (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies - College of Asian and the pacific - The Australian National University, Australia)Presentation: Our Experience of Linguistic Mapping and Thoughts on its Future Direction (English)

The workshop, organized by UNESCO Maputo following the similar workshop organized by UNESCO Dar es Salaam in Antananarivo, aimed at designing practical tools for inventorying ICH in Portuguese speaking countries in Africa. It also included the discussion concerning the safeguarding of ICH.

The workshop consisted of the following three main activities:

Presentation and discussion of conceptual and methodological issues regarding ICH, such as:

UNESCO’s 2003 Convention;

Relevant aspects of anthropological theory,

General methodological guidelines for cultural inventories.

Problems of ethics and of social responsibility in inventory making.

Presentation and discussion of the “state of the arts” regarding the context(s) for which the inventory is being planned.

Designing inventory tools for pre-test and delineation of basic aspects of the inventory project. The work implied taking specific project decisions concerning the following items:

Elaboration of a preliminary list of ICH elements, on the basis of the participants’ previous knowledge of their country’s (or region’s) cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity;

Identification of the domains covered by the inventory, as well as types and categories of ICH elements if applicable, which implies a critical appreciation and possible widening of the above mentioned preliminary list;

Delimitation of the area where the pre-test and future inventory will be undertaken,

The workshop, organized by UNESCO Dar es Salaam in cooperation with the Direction de l’Identité, des Traditions et de l’Innovation, aimed at designing practical tools for inventorying ICH in Madagascar. It also included the discussion concerning the safeguarding of ICH.

The workshop consisted of the following three main activities:

Presentation and discussion of conceptual and methodological issues regarding ICH, such as:

UNESCO’s 2003 Convention;

Relevant aspects of anthropological theory,

General methodological guidelines for cultural inventories.

Problems of ethics and of social responsibility in inventory making.

Presentation and discussion of the “state of the arts” regarding the context(s) for which the inventory is being planned: cultural formation of the country (or region), existing heritage legislation and preservation practices, lists and present condition of safeguarded heritage, main programs and projects that are being developed in this field and perspectives for the safeguarding of ICH in near future, particularly in terms of inventory making.

Designing inventory tools for pre-test and delineation of basic aspects of the inventory project. Besides the production of inventory observation tools, these activities were a pedagogical exercise aiming at the development of the participants’ awareness of the complexity of ICH, its deeper symbolic meaning for their fellow countrymen and its importance in terms of their social, political and economic realities. This aspect of the work implied taking specific project decisions concerning the following items:

Elaboration of a preliminary list of ICH elements, on the basis of the participants’ previous knowledge of their country’s (or region’s) cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity;

Identification of the domains covered by the inventory, as well as types and categories of ICH elements if applicable, which implies a critical appreciation and possible widening of the above mentioned preliminary list;

Delimitation of the area where the pre-test and future inventory will be undertaken,

A basic planning of the pre-test.

The workshop was attended by 15 government officials working in the field of culture at the central and regional levels, assisted by Dr. Lala Raharinjanahary (anthropologist), Dr. Antonio Augusto Arantes Neto (anthropologiest), and the Programme Specialist for Cultural of UNESCO Dar es Salaam.

In view of the complicated nature of the process of inventory making, the somewhat contradictory practices carried out so far and the profound impact that this process eventually implies on local, national, and international level, and bearing in mind that the best practices of international cooperation involve meetings of deliberation by equal parties, we convened the current regional seminar to analyse, exchange experience and debate on the issues of inventory making. This meeting brought together experts representing different regions of Europe, largely combining the expertise and practices of Eastern and Western Europe. The rather limited regional scope is simultaneously covering relatively similar, yet also distinctly diverse historical experience that would hopefully provide a good basis for fruitful discussion.

The meeting’s purpose was to invite experts to discuss a number of matters of fundamental importance related to the two lists to be established under the 2003 Convention, as well as examine and debate draft inscription criteria for those lists. Of the 30 experts, most were nationals of States Parties to the Convention, and 13 came from States Members of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The debates and results of the India meeting were intended to assist the Secretariat and the Committee in their work on the elaboration of criteria for inscription of ICH elements on the two lists of the Convention, sharpening arguments in favour of and opposed to several options concerning the nature of the lists and the relation between them. The experts were asked to discuss alternatives and to present the strongest possible arguments in favour of opposite positions in order to facilitate preparation of draft documents by the Secretariat for presentation to the Committee at its coming sessions in China and Japan. The draft documents that the Committee will consider have been improved substantially as a result of the lively debates and productive suggestions of the experts.

The meeting was made possible with the generous support of the Government of India, supplemented by a contribution from the Norwegian FIT for ICH that permitted funding of travel of participants from developing countries. The meeting also benefitted from the logistical support and facilitation of the Ministry of Culture of India and UNESCO’s New Delhi Office.

Working document : Possible Criteria for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding (English|French)

The Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development (UAE) and the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Section, a Regional Meeting for Arab States was organized on the ‘Implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: Inventory-making’ in Abu in Abu Dhabi from 31 March to 4 April 2007. The objectives were to:

examine different questions relating to the implementation of the 2003 convention;

exchange of experiences in the field of methodologies for the establishment of national inventories

discuss of safeguarding approaches of intangible cultural heritage: legal, administrative and safeguarding mechanisms of ICH in the Region

Representatives and experts from the 18 Arab countries took part in the meeting, in addition to UNESCO representatives, and regional organizations: ALECSO (Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization) and ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and three international participants from Japan, Mali and Vietnam.

A Photo Exhibition of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was held at the same dates that the Abu Dhabi Book Fair. The meeting and the exhibition were organized under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al-Nahyan, the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).

At this meeting specialists and community members shared and discussed concrete practical experiences and insights into how educational efforts can be deployed to strengthen the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.

The meeting focused on two areas: K-12 (basic and secondary) and non-formal education for the continued or renewed transmission of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in communities, and educational awareness-raising about ICH among young people.

The meeting intended to make contributions to the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and placed particular emphasis on education, awareness-raising and capacity-building as safeguarding measures.

Finally, the participants formulated a set of recommendations on strategies and priorities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage through education.

The second meeting organized in the framework of the “Capacity-building for safeguarding languages and oral traditions and expressions in sub-Saharan Africa” project brought together thirty experts from twenty-one African countries and representatives from university departments and national research institutions specialized in African languages.

The meeting focussed on concrete cases, examples and lessons encountered by African experts involved in recent activities relating to the safeguarding of endangered languages.

At the end of the session, a series of concrete recommendations for a future strategy for the safeguarding of endangered languages in Africa were drawn up. These recommendations will also contribute to UNESCO’s ongoing efforts to compile a Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation.

This meeting, organized by the UNESCO Office in Dar es Salaam and the Culture Sector’s Intangible Heritage Section, was attended by 35-40 participants from 23 African countries. Its objectives were to:

inform participants about the preparation of the implementation of the Convention on the international level;

discuss ways in which the 2003 Convention may be implemented on the national level, focussing on inventory-making and other safeguarding activities;

take stock of the situation as regards the identification and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia;

learn from the experience of other countries in ICH inventory-making;

prepare the establishment of the national strategy and methodology concerning ICH inventory-making in Ethiopia.

discuss the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The participants included experts from the regional cultural bureaus of Ethiopia, representatives of the communities, NGOs, researchers and an expert each from Djibouti and Somalia. The meeting also welcomed a resource person from and IPHAN, Brazil ((Instituto do patrimonio historico e artistico nacional/National Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage) and the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section in Paris.

Participants related their experiences on the management of the implementation of the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in view of the entry into force of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in April 2006. The working sessions focussed on:

Legislative initiatives for the safeguarding of intangible heritage;

Ways of involving practitioners and communities in safeguarding projects;

Experiences in encouraging the transmission of intangible cultural heritage;

Creation of institutions and inventories devoted to intangible cultural heritage.

The Intangible Heritage Section, in close cooperation with the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), has launched an initiative to promote African languages. The objective of the project is threefold:

to strengthen the national and regional institutional capacities for language preservation (at African universities, national research institutes and in regional institutions),

to promote south-south and north-south cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa and

to foster the implementation of national language policies, which are so often disregarded due to the lack of resources and trained specialists.

The project, funded by the Government of Norway, was based on a questionnaire-survey among over 80 university departments and research institutions working in the field of African languages in Sub-Saharan African. The survey allowed to establish a state of the art of their current activities in research and education, to assess major needs and to single out the main issues to be addressed by this project.

Based on these findings, a first expert meeting in Bamako, organized in closed cooperation with ACALAN, brought together about 50 linguists, representatives of the university departments, national and regional research institutions from all over Sub-Saharan Africa that participated in the UNESCO survey. The aim of the meeting was to provide a platform for exchange, to promote cooperation and to establish an optimal strategy and priorities for further action in favour of African languages.

This expert meeting provided an opportunity for experts from northern and southern Sudan to learn more about the methodology used in the inventorying of intangible cultural heritage. This event was part of the Culture programme “Strengthening respect for cultural diversity towards intercultural dialogue and reconciliation in Sudan”, which was approved in the 2006 UN Work Plan for Sudan.

This expert meeting is part of a series of encounters organized by UNESCO on core themes concerning the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention. Previous meetings dealt with Inventory-making (March 2005), the Selection Criteria for Inscription on the Convention’s Lists (December 2005), and Documentation and Archiving (January 2006).

The meeting’s objectives:
1) Provide a forum to exchange ideas and concerns and to elaborate recommendations on:

The definition of communities and groups in the context of the ICH Convention;

The involvement of communities and groups in defining, identifying and inventorying their intangible cultural heritage;

Ensuring the widest possible participation of communities and groups in safeguarding activities;

Determining ways in which intangible cultural heritage can serve as a factor in development.

2) Provide participants with the latest information on the Convention’s ratification status and the preparation of its implementation
3) Discuss ACCU activities and proposals for strengthening regional and sub-regional networks to ensure effective implementation of promotional and safeguarding activities related to the Convention.

The meeting was organized by UNESCO and the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU), in cooperation with Bunkacho (Agency of Cultural Affairs in Japan).

This expert meeting was aimed at assisting UNESCO in the elaboration of the outline of a Manual on Oral Traditions and Expressions and at advising on potential authors. The Manual is one out of a planned series of several thematic publications that address specific domains of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and are meant to facilitate the implementation of the 2003 Convention. It will help the States-Parties in developing inventories and carrying out actual safeguarding measures and activities.

The five experts who participated in the meeting did so in their personal capacity and were selected on the basis of their competences and of regional considerations.

During the two days of the meeting, the experts discussed and revised a draft structure of the Manual, as presented by the Intangible Heritage Section of UNESCO. They also discussed and refined a form for inventorying elements of ICH and considered some definitions of the Glossary Intangible Cultural Heritage, prepared by an international expert meeting in June 2002.

The experts also exchanged their personal experiences and examples of good practices of safeguarding oral traditions and expressions.

Documenting and archiving intangible cultural heritage serve different purposes within the framework of the 2003. The expert meeting was thus convened in order:

to discuss diverse ways in which the documenting and archiving of the intangible cultural heritage could be done and used for the sake of the 2003 Convention,

to study the needs for documentation created by the 2003 Convention, and

to establish what approaches and practices suit the best various purposes of the Convention and what new approaches have to be investigated.

Twenty-four international experts from 23 countries, representing different disciplines and different perspectives, were invited to participate in the meeting in their personal capacity for their experience in the practice of producing, processing, storing, and making accessible documentation of ICH element. It is envisaged that outcomes of the meeting would contribute towards the elaboration of thematic manuals on the safeguarding of different domains of the intangible cultural heritage, which are currently under preparation, and also offer a number of complementary and/or alternative methods and methodologies for documenting and archiving ICH for different goals.